A single track crawler type vehicle is known in the prior art as evidenced by H. E. Best, U.S. Pat. No. 3,548,962. Pohjola, U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,607 also proposes the provision of an endless track supported between rollers for use on a vehicle. The track envisioned in this and other prior art patents usually are extremely wide and therefore considerable difficulty is encountered whenever the vehicle attempts to change the direction of its course.
The patents Ames U.S. Pat. No. 3,565,198 and Hackney U.S. Pat. No. 1,219,637 are examples of multitrack vehicles wherein the main body of the vehicle is bent laterally so as to induce a corresponding lateral bend into the dual track, thereby providing a degree of control over the direction in which the vehicle is headed.
An overland track vehicle which can be used for traversing snow, sand, wet or marshy land, or dry land, and which has a single, continuous, flexible track for supporting the vehicle as it moves across the terrain is highly desirable because maximum efficiency is realized when the number of working parts have been reduced to a minimum. Moreover, such a vehicle presents the very smallest cross sectional area possible in this type of design. Furthermore, a vehicle of this design has a minimum weight and accordingly, the pressure of the foot print is extremely low and therefore requires a very small track area. Moreover, a single track vehicle inherently responds much better to direction change as compared to a multi-track vehicle having tracks bendable latterally from the direction of travel.
Improvements in a single track vehicle which overcome the above defects of the prior art and which achieve the above discussed goals are the subject of the present invention.